From meetings with Hungarians to considering a Balkan border change, Wess Mitchell is credited with shifting policy to counter Moscow. Is it working?
With Secretary of State Mike Pompeo occupied with North Korea, Iran, and, now, the crisis over Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance, US policy in Central and Eastern Europe has been turned over to an academic who until his appointment a year ago had no experience as a US diplomat.
Since he became the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs last fall, A. Wess Mitchell has jettisoned the Obama-era policy of focusing on human rights violations in nations such as Hungary in favor of a policy that sees regional authoritarian governments as potential partners, not diplomatic pariahs.
The logic, say some, is that that’s a better way to coax those countries away from Russia. Others worry that reengaging with those governments ends up empowering ideologues who believe they are dealing with a like-minded administration.
The State Department declined to make Mitchell available for an interview.
See at: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emilytamkin/russia-hungary-trump-policy-wess-mitchell
